Networks, such as for example, IP networks and Synchronous Optical Networks (SONET), provide network architecture for high speed data transmissions. Current network architecture may comprise a vast number of components, connections, logical channels and physical lines located around the globe that carry data from endpoint to endpoint.
An individual or an enterprise customer may subscribe for services over the network. For example, an enterprise customer may subscribe to a network using multiple physical channels. For example, multi-link point-to-point protocol (MLPPP) may be used to transmit data over a single logical channel having multiple physical channels. MLPPP provides a protocol that provides efficient use of multiple physical channels connected between two devices.
Occasionally, a customers may report problems on the network affecting their service. Currently, when a problem is reported, troubleshooting the problem is performed manually by technicians. However, as discussed above, due to the vast size of the network architecture, manually troubleshooting the root cause of the problem by technicians may be extremely time consuming or expensive. Moreover, in network architectures using multiple physical channels, identifying which physical channel has a problem may be difficult because there is no unique address associated with each physical channel (That is, all physical channels within a bundle share one same IP Address). Consequently, service to the customer may be affected due to the network being down or degraded for an extended period of time, thereby creating costumer dissatisfactions. In turn, the extended periods of down time to the network may have an impact on the revenue of a network service provider.
Therefore, there is a need for a method that provides automated diagnostics of IP networks using multiple physical channels.